Moderator: Welcome to today’s episode of True to Form, with your host, President and Cofounder of Crystal Clear, highly regarded speaker and two-time Inc. 500 entrepreneur, Tim Sawyer. True to Form is a podcast that highlights leaders making headway in the aesthetic, anti-aging and elective medical industry. Learn from the experts to discover the secrets of success and pitfalls to avoid when growing all aspects of your elective medical practice. This week’s episode is brought to you by DermaConcepts, the exclusive distributor of Environ skincare, which provides results driven at home and professional treatment products and technology backed by clinical studies in science that are a generation ahead of other skincare companies. DermaConcepts also provides industry leading education, marketing support in an innovative business model guaranteeing ROI results for a practice and outstanding patient satisfaction. Please join me in welcoming your host, the authentic, the transparent, Tim Sawyer.
Tim Sawyer: Hello and welcome to the second episode of practice management month here on True to Form, the podcast that connects you to the people, technology and hot topics that shape the elective medical community. Provided to you by Crystal Clear Digital Marketing and brought to you by this week’s sponsor, DermaConcepts, the exclusive distributor of Environ skincare. I’m your host Tim Sawyer and to our returning guests, welcome back and for the first-time listeners, we appreciate you joining us and encourage you to become a subscriber. Last week, we spoke with Joni O’Leary, VP of marketing for the leading hair restoration practice Ziering Medical, in which he provided a rock-solid blueprint for how to grow your practice as well as the importance of CRM and knowing your numbers. If you missed it, you should check it out.
And with all that said, and as always, just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, we’re going to a different level today. As promised, we bring the movers and shakers and today we have a very special guest, a friend of mine, someone I’ve known for a long time, and I’m super proud to have her on the podcast today. And it’s my pleasure to introduce Terri Wojak. She is a highly sought-after professional with over 20 years of experience in the aesthetic industry. She is the education director of GlycoAla, and runs her own aesthetic education company, Aesthetics Exposed Education. She is a respected authority on skincare in a medical setting, education and business development on multiple levels. Terry has built 50 individual courses based on skincare in a medical setting. More than 100 articles by Terri have appeared in a multitude of industry magazines, and she has published two books. She’s a respected author of Aesthetics Exposed: Mastering Skincare in a Medical Setting & Beyond. We encourage you to check them out. We’re going to talk to her about those today. In May 2014, and Mastering Medical Aesthetics, debuted in 2009. Terri has trained over 5000 aestheticians and medical professionals on the importance of incorporating skincare into cosmetic medicine. And with that said, it is my pleasure to introduce Terri Wojak. Hey, Terri.
Terri Wojak: Hi, thank you for having me.
Tim Sawyer: I love your energy. I can already sense how pumped up you are to be here today.
Terri Wojak: I am.
Tim Sawyer: Tell our listeners a little bit of – how’d you get into aesthetics in general, was there something – at what age did you say, you know, “I think I could do that.”
Terri Wojak: Well, I was 20 years old, and I was going to community college to be an accountant, which is completely opposite. I just didn’t know what I wanted to do. So, I was just kind of, I was good with numbers. So, I just kept going to school and kind of trying to figure out what I wanted to do. And I was working at a well-known spot in Illinois, and I got my first facial, they asked me if they could practice on me and I’m like, “Sure.” I didn’t really even know what a facial was. And as soon as I was done, she explained to me like the skin science, the ingredients. I literally – I got done with the facial and I called my dad and I’m like, “I’m dropping out of school, and I’m going to becoming an aesthetician.” So that’s how I got into skincare.
Tim Sawyer: Well, and I know that you are – through our time together and our experience, you spend a lot of time on the science behind the products. Where does that come from and what do you look for now in a good quality medical grade skincare product?
Terri Wojak: Well, I mean, the science is always exciting to me. I just think that it’s really important to know the science behind the products and the treatments you’re delivering. Great products, I feel like should have the most essential ingredients in them. So, like your vitamins A, C, and E, which are the essential clinically studied ingredients, as well as some powerhouse ingredients that are really going to make a difference in the skin. So, I like to do some research on – when I’m looking into a new line or looking at a skincare line, I like to really research and see what those ingredients are and how they affect the skin.
Tim Sawyer: And it’s got to be – it’s interesting [indiscernible] [0:05:26] that you do some work with DermaConcepts. And I recently had done an interview with Carol and Rob Trow. And Carol is an amazing woman and she talked a lot about the importance of things like shelf life, ingredients that there – and you could describe it better than me. In other words, it’s not something that can sit on a shelf forever, right? You’ve got all the natural ingredients in there. And you’ve got to use it at the appropriate time and it’s got – it can expire and those are – to me it was interesting because when you think about skincare products whether it’s Mary Kay and not know knock on Mary Kay but the stuff can sit on shelves forever, right? So, how was that different in what you –. When you recommend a skincare line to someone, what are you looking for in the line?
Terri Wojak: Well I typically recommend Environ skincare because that’s the main line that I use and I also work for them part time on another aspect. But it has been a line that I’ve been using for 15 years now. And one of the great things about them is the fresh ingredients. You know, those ingredients are filled under LED light, they’re completely safe ingredients. There aren’t a lot of preservatives and fillers in the product, that you’re getting a lot of those nutrients, those vitamins and nutrients in the product and you’re getting them fresh. So you know that you’re going to be using the best quality. I think that’s really important.
Tim Sawyer: And what are things–. So I want to switch gears for a little bit because one of the things I talk about and as you know, I spent a lot of time at shows and in practice management tracks, and there’s this conversation that you’re going to run a successful Med Spa or any type of aesthetic clinic, that retail should be somewhere around 20% of sales. And for vast majority of med spas and aesthetic clinics, they don’t hit that number. And it always amazes me, and the common excuse is well, the people at the front desk, they weren’t hired to sell and they’re vocal about that. “I wasn’t hired to sell skincare products.” Talk a little bit about your philosophy towards one, how important it is to recommend that and then how do you motivate those people to actually do it?
Terri Wojak: Okay. So, basically, it is really important to sell skincare. If your clients are not – or your patients are not getting your skincare from your practice, they’re getting it somewhere else. They want to keep up the effect of their great results. And it’s almost like when someone loses a lot of weight or gets body surgery like liposuction. They go out and buy a whole new wardrobe, they go out and buy all new makeup when their skin looks good. And it’s the same thing with skincare products, they want to be told what to use. There was a statistic I think in MedEsthetics magazine that 80% of people that did not buy a product from the practice within 24 hours bought products somewhere else.
So, you’re just letting them walk out the door and going to the next cosmetic counter or the drugstore where they really don’t know what the best thing is for their skin. They really need to be told what’s going to keep up, maintain and enhance these results. So, I feel like that’s really important and I feel like a lot of it is about education and listening to the podcast too with DermaConcepts. Getting a line that supports education and educates the entire staff, has incentive programs for staff. Because, the staff, when they’re using a product and they’re actually seeing the difference, it’s not even as much as a sell. It is basically, again, education, educating their clients or patients, “I’ve been using this product for so long and it’s doing this on my skin. These are amazing.” Or like the reception which we were talking about, I feel like the receptionist needs to be trained on skincare as well as the rest of the practice and they really need to believe in it. So, it’s not something where it should just be like, “Oh, here’s some information on the products that we’re selling.” It should really be an in-depth conversation and they should be using the products as well so they can really get an understanding of what they’re selling.
Tim Sawyer: Right. And that, you know it’s funny, that last point that you made, I’ve often heard the term that the best way to motivate someone to be comfortable educating or selling somebody on a skincare line is to get them using that skincare product themselves. Right, so that they can actually see and feel the difference and become an evangelist. I mean –.
Terri Wojak: Exactly.
Tim Sawyer: That’s the whole thing. And so, when you were in, I know you spent a lot of time working in a relatively high-volume cosmetic surgery practice, first of all, what was the mix there? In other words, I know there was a lot of invasive treatments going on and then you had the non-invasive piece. How does that dynamic work for either a plastic or a cosmetic surgeon to promote skincare and manage that at the front desk? And I know you played a big role in that.
Terri Wojak: Yes, I think it’s important when you’re trying to promote something, six to seven touches is usually what somebody needs to see it really make an impression. So, having information and not just like sales pitches in the waiting area. So starting with the waiting area, having good information on there about the products like educational materials, having before and after pictures. And then basically when they’re getting brought back, someone letting them know like the medical provider or the receptionist bringing the client back, “Terri is going to talk to you about your skincare today as well.” And the doctor, when they’re in there, of course, promoting the product, and simply something as simple as just saying, “Terri is going to go over your skincare products with you.” That to them is like a prescription. “My doctor told me Terri’s going to over the products with me that I need to use. So, I need to use these.” And then likely, and then what we would do is bring a prescription pad up front, and the receptionist would then go, “Okay, so these are the products that Terri recommended for you. Here they are, do you have any questions about them?” And that’s pretty much how the sales work, but every single person kind of need to be involved in just saying, “We’re going to let you know the skincare products that are going to help to enhance and maintain these results.”
Tim Sawyer: And that’s one of the more prophetic things ever. It totally makes sense. Because if you went to a dermatologist, and you had psoriasis or something and the doctor said, “Yup, these are the serums or creams that you need to use, and it’ll alleviate your symptoms.” Sound like the patient’s going to go, “Yeah, okay, let me think about that, I’m going to shop around.”
Terri Wojak: Exactly. So, they’re coming there to make their skin look better. They want products that they can use at home to get their skin to look better.
Tim Sawyer: And what – In that environment, how much time did you spend as the person responsible for that process, actually training the other aesthetic members?
Terri Wojak: When I first started there, so, I started about 14 years ago and I was the head of the Med Spa department. So, I was originally just hired to run Dr. Diane’s Med Spa. And when I did that, I – that’s when I did with a lot of the training, increased the retail sales. When I got there, they were actually losing money on their skincare department. So, what I did, it completely changed around with the education, got it up and running. And then from there, when I went on to – when the education department started getting too big, I went over to that area and I still would just do a training maybe every three to four months, I would do a training with the other staff to kind of get them excited again, and let them know about the products and give them some more science and background and things like that.
Tim Sawyer: And I think if you look at the makeup of most med spas, you’re talking maybe three, three to seven and upwards of 10 employees and in most med spas around a million dollars in revenue. I feel like there’s not enough emphasis placed on training in general. And one aspect of training would be on skincare, another aspect of training would be on sales in general, right, things like listening to phone calls, paying attention to what your patients say, Frequently Asked Questions, objections. As a professional, how much time did you spend on things like that? And what was your process for making sure everybody understood, “Hey, this is what we need to say, and this is what people want to talk about?”
Terri Wojak: Well, I think at the beginning, it’s really important and whenever there’s a new hire too, I feel like people always miss that, the new hire comes in and they’re kind of scrambling around and they’re like, okay, not really getting them involved in the education. So, I think it’s important when anyone, a new hire starts to get them educated. One of the ways we got that educated as well, is we would have them shadow the providers. So, instead of, four days out of the week, they would shadow the different providers and see the treatments firsthand and seeing how patients react to them, whether it be front desk, or marketing, or an aesthetician, that’s how we train them and that’s part of the training. And I think that’s really important to see these treatments firsthand. So, I did spend a lot of time training, but some of it would be in email or having reps come in and doing a training on their specific product lines as well. But I feel like it should be a continuous, continuous thing to keep people excited. And we used to do monthly in services, where once a month, one of the staff members would pick a topic and do an in-service for the rest of the staff. And that gets everybody excited again about a certain treatment or product, and it gives the employee that is giving the presentation, it gives them some accolades and gets them excited about kind of doing a presentation for the staff.
Tim Sawyer: Such a great idea. I love it. It’s a really good idea. And what would you look for when you are hiring an esthetician, what are some of the character traits that you’re looking for in that person?
Terri Wojak: So, number one, I always look for passion. Because I feel like when you’re passionate about something, you’re going to do a good job. I look for passion, number one, I look for education. And I feel like that has to do with passion, if you’re passionate about something, you’re going to continue to get educated on that, whatever you’re passionate about. So I feel like that’s really important that you have the passion, the education, obviously honesty, and being able to actually converse with clients, actually that kind of one on one, that consultation and really getting to know the client and kind of feeding of their personality type and getting to know them on a personal level. Not really a personal level, but as that, aesthetic level. I think is really important.
Tim Sawyer: And one of the things that I’ve talked about and I give some thought to is, this is going to sound like a strange observation. But [indiscernible] [0:18:18]. So, if you think about the average earnings of an aesthetician, depending upon the market, 50, 70, 80, whatever that number is, thousand a year, or – and not just an aestheticist, anyone working in the practice, who’s making recommendations for an elective treatment, right. And let’s say it could be, I often talk to consultants about their approach towards coming up with a treatment plan, an annual treatment plan, and they’ll say, “Okay, this is what we’re going to do at this point in time, this is what we’re going to do at this point.” And let’s say that annual treatment plan comes up to $15,000 for the year. What I am always trying to figure out is, if the person making that recommendation couldn’t imagine in their life spending their own hard-earned money on that, how do you manage that? In other words, if the hardest thing in the world is for a human is to not project your value system on to somebody else. And if you’re making tradeoffs like, I got to pay rent versus I got to do this, I got to do that. How can you stare somebody in the face and say, “Yeah, it’s $20,000, you should do it?”
Terri Wojak: Right. And that’s exactly what I mean with the passion. If you believe in something, when you really believe in the product and you believe in the treatment, and you know they’re going to make a difference for the skin and make that person feel better about themselves, I think that’s the biggest thing that sometimes gets lost too. What we’re doing is really important, we’re making people feel good, we’re making people feel better about themselves, they may have went through a horrible time or are just feeling down lately or obviously, we’re all aging and we start to feel a little down in themselves. And we’re really, making people feel better about themselves and someone who’s passionate about that, I think wouldn’t have a problem. You really don’t see the numbers, you don’t see numbers, you see more education, like I’m educating this patient on what to do to make them feel the best about themselves.
Tim Sawyer: Yeah, and I think that’s the key, you got to find people who, to your point, there’s just some zeros on a page, that’s really not what I’m here to talk to you about. What I’m here to talk to you about is what I love to do is make people look great, feel great inside and out. And that’s the person you got to find, right, I mean, that to me seems like the magic in this whole thing. Let me ask you this, because you mentioned you had got involved in a med spa and was doing okay, but not making a ton of money and you kind of turned it around, if you look at the current landscape of med spa services, if you had to go open up a med spa today, what would be the three or four things that you would, and of course based on some market research, that you would say, you know what, these are the three or four things you have to do right out of the gate?
Terri Wojak: Well, obviously neurotoxin and fillers because those are always the top two on the cosmetic procedures list. So obviously neurotoxins, fillers. I think depending on budget too, if the client had a budget, or if I had a budget and I was just starting out, I would probably start with injectables and skincare , which is like facials and chemical peels. And then when you start gaining more money, then you would go into buying your equipment, so buying your lasers or your IPL or your radio frequency devices for skin tightening. But I think starting out with the injectables is really important. PRP is great, it’s a low cost to startup and in definitely adding that skincare component, because I think the skincare to really helps with retention. So, even though skincare isn’t going to bring in as much money as injectables by any means, it’s your retention, it’s bringing that patient back in every three to four weeks into that office, to really get to know the people, get comfortable with that office and know that that’s their stop for all of their cosmetic procedures.
Tim Sawyer: Right, I hear that a lot. That that’s on the retention side, it’s super important piece. Any real popular devices that you think are kind of the right place to be that you could make a decent – a reasonable investing in that could stay with you for a long time?
Terri Wojak: There are a lot of things and I think it really depends on the person’s practice. But obviously IPL is always going to be a great device. IPL’s always going to get rid of your discoloration, going to stimulate collagen production, IPL is a staple in medical offices. A lot of people are doing fractional micro needling right now. I’m a big proponent of traditional micro needling as well. And that’s an easy procedure to add–.
Tim Sawyer: Right. And micro needling, it’s one of the things that I see when people list the fastest growing procedures in the US, that’s always one of them. And then the other top three, which is fascinating to me, is vaginal rejuvenation. I can’t believe how popular that is.
Terri Wojak: Yeah, I agree. It’s kind of falling in and out of favor a little bit, but yeah, it seems to be really growing again.
Tim Sawyer: Yep. It’s the one thing you got to be careful about when you do a lot of vaginal rejuvenation, it’s tunnel vision.
Terri Wojak: That’s a good one.
Tim Sawyer: That’s an old OB-GYN joke.
Terri Wojak: Nice.
Tim Sawyer: So, first of all, congratulations to you for writing two books. That’s got to be one tough freaking process. What was the motivation behind that?
Terri Wojak: Well, the first book I wrote because we had our training center. So Dr. Diane and I wrote the first book together, just kind of like a small book to go with the training program. And then Allured, who is the company that runs Skin Inc. Magazine, actually asked me, they said there was a need for a book for aesthetics in a medical setting and would I write one. So, I was just going to update the other book and I decided to just keep on writing and it is a very large book that kind of covers all aspects of the aesthetic industry. So, yeah, it was like a year process, a year of having no life. But it was worth it now that I have that piece, especially with my training programs, I have that textbook to go along with them.
Tim Sawyer: And is it on Amazon, all the regular places you can get it? Where would someone get the book?
Terri Wojak: Yeah. It’s on the Amazon.
Tim sawyer: And what’s the name of it again, the most current one?
Terri Wojak: Aesthetics Exposed.
Tim Sawyer: Aesthetics Exposed. And what would be the big –? So you’ve written two books, you’ve been in the business almost 20 – around 20 years, you’re a respected professional. What I would like to – two or three kind of little pieces of advice that you would give to somebody who’s thinking about either adding aesthetics to an existing practice, or opening a new med spa.
Terri Wojak: Number one is hire the right people. I think that’s really important because you’re only as strong as your staff. I think that you really need to get the right staff in there, people that are going to work together, work as a team, who are open to education, open to learning. I think that’s another good aspect of hiring. And also – oh wait, I’m trying to think now. So, that would be number one. I think number two, not overdoing the equipment product, but really getting to know what type of the company is, like if you’re going to buy a product line, making sure that the company is going to support education, is going to support marketing, is going to be there after that first sale is made. And also, the equipment too. You don’t want to purchase a lot of equipment and not have anybody to support for marketing. We have, there was that all, whole laser salesman or your love them and leave them, because they make the sale and then they’re really not there afterwards. But there are a lot of great companies out there now that do offer marketing support and education. So, I think it’s important too when you’re choosing your equipment, when you’re choosing the companies to work with, that you’re really looking into that as well. And third, just know that there is – it is going to take some time to build up. But as long as you treat every patient like they’re the top, that they’re your golden patient, they’re your number one, that’s the easiest way to build retention and once you get good, retained clientele, you’re going to start becoming really successful.
Tim Sawyer: That sounds like an award-winning formula to me. So where can people see you next? Are you headed to any shows? Do you have another book in the works?
Terri Wojak: I don’t have another book but I’m going to update this book and I’m going to add a lot of great stuff to the book. So that’ll probably take like six months to a year to be finished. But I am working on that. I also started my own aesthetic education company. I will be at the Med Spa show in January. That show I’ll be at doing a couple talks there. And I’m going to be doing my own educational courses. So, I’m kind of going to be traveling around my last book courses in Minnesota. So, and I also-
Tim Sawyer: Terri, where can somebody go and find those courses? Is there a website or how do they reach out?
Terri Wojak: Yeah, on aestheticsexposed.com. With an A, starts with an A, yeah.
Tim Sawyer: And is there an email if someone is listening to this and they want to reach out to you by email, do you have an email address they can contact you at?
Terri Wojak: Yes, it’s terri@aestheticsexposed, and Terri is T-E-R-R-I@aestheticsexposed with an A.
Tim Sawyer: Got it, and are those courses going on currently?
Terri Wojak: So, I don’t have any courses coming up right now, they’re all going to be in December, is when I’m going to put all of my dates up. So, I will have the dates up because I just recently left my last position. So, I’m still kind of getting everything together right now, but they will be there soon. And I also do individualized, in-office training as well. So, if anyone’s interested in like a particular training, they can come to me and I do custom training as well.
Tim Sawyer: And so, you will go on site to a practice and —
Terri Wojak: Yes.
Tim Sawyer: … and observe and actually train the staff in person?
Terri Wojak: Yes.
Tim Sawyer: Well, look at you.
Terri Wojak: Yeah.
Tim Sawyer: You ready for Thanksgiving?
Terri Wojak: I am. Are you?
Tim Sawyer: Yeah, yeah. You kidding me? Where are you going for Thanksgiving? You do it at your place or?
Terri Wojak: No, I’m going to go to my sister’s.
Tim Sawyer: Nice. Are you still in – are you in Chicago or–?
Terri Wojak: Yeah, I’m in Chicago.
Tim Sawyer: All right. Well, listen, I really appreciate you taking the time today. And I can tell you’re super passionate about this stuff and I know you as a person. And I would, obviously, highly recommend any med spa aesthetic practice that’s looking to tighten things up internally a little bit and grow the retail side of their business. I would highly recommend that you all reach out to Terri and as she just stated, she’d be happy to talk to you and come and see you. So, I look forward to seeing you in January at the Med Spa show, it’s going to be amazing and everyone should check that out just google American Med Spa Association. Look at their big show in January, it’s a huge event. It’s grown by 200% in just one year, year over year, and Terri is going to be an important part of the show. So, thank you Terri so much for taking the time today.
Terri Wojak: Thank you. Have a good day.
Moderator: Thanks for tuning in to this week’s episode of True to Form brought to you by DermaConcepts, the exclusive distributor of Environ Skincare. To learn more about this week’s podcast sponsor, visit DermaConcepts.com and to learn more about your podcast provider Crystal Clear, visit crystalcleardm.com. Be sure to subscribe to the show on all your favorite music apps including iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, and tune in to stay up to date with the newest episodes. Thank you for listening.
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